By Not Known
Decorations are up along Orchard Road, carols are played at the malls, and shoppers are busy picking up their gifts for the joyous season. Churches too are busy preparing their celebrations with services and programmes for Christmas. We are thankful that we have no disruptions at this blessed time of year.
In a beautiful little place nestled in the foothills of Appalachia, U.S.A., trouble is brewing. A group calling itself “Freedom From Religion Foundation” wrote a letter to the city of Piedmont some time ago demanding that prayers over the intercom at their local football games be ceased immediately. They also threatened legal action against the city and the school system if they did not comply.
This little town was again in the news last week. The city of Piedmont decided to make the theme of their Christmas parade “Keep Christ in Christmas.” The group that rallied against prayer at football games would in all likelihood surely again rally against this. They would probably maintain that mandating Christ in Christmas is, in and of itself, unacceptable.
There is freedom to do what you want in the land of the free but one group just cannot be allowed to mandate that everyone has to do it or be subjected to it by a federally funded entity. The issue in the US may be complicated to many of us here but the crux of the matter is that more and more resistance seems to be generated about how things are traditionally done.
Will, one day, people ask why play Christian songs and hymns are allowed to be played in public in a multi-religious country? Why should the Tourism Board spend public funds to promote a Christian celebration?
Well, lest we be carried away by this debate, let’s ask ourselves once again, what’s the reason for the season? Why do we celebrate Christmas at our church services in the first place? Why do we have to ensure that we keep Christ in Christmas?
Paul tells us that in the fullness of time, God sent His Son (Gal 4:4). Why did God do that for us? Christmas without Christ places a big question mark over who we are as people of the faith. When Christ is edged out of Christmas, we become people of little or even no faith. Is Christ in our Christmas?
Peter Poon